Education - What is Mead?

Mead may be one of the world's oldest fermented beverages, with Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat saying, "It can be regarded as the ancestor of all fermented drinks, antedating the cultivation of the soil," but it is also the one with the least known about it.This means  that starting a meadery with the purpose of selling to the general populous means educating the public in mead with all of it's new terms, flavors, and intricacies. With that in mind, we will try to do an educational blog post weekly about everything mead. For this first post, we'll start with the basics: what exactly is mead and what the basic varieties of mead are.

Mead is an alcoholic beverage (according to the TTB, a 'honey-wine') made by fermenting (not brewing but that's another post) a solution of honey and water. Mead can fall into a large range of alcohol content from the low end to extremely high and can run the gamut from dry to sweet, still to sparkling. Archaeological evidence for the earliest production of mead dates to around 7000 BC.

The most common types of mead are:
Traditional: Honey, water, and yeast
Melomel: Honey, water, yeast, and any fruit besides apple or grape
Cyser: Honey, water, yeast, and apple
Pyment: Honey, water, yeast, and grape
Metheglin: Honey, water, yeast, and herbs/spices

Other mead types you may come across:
Rhodomel: Honey, water, yeast, and rose hips/ rose petals
Sack Mead: Traditional mead made with a large amount of honey - retaining a very sweet flavor
Hydromel: A low alcohol mead
Bochet: Carmelized honey, water, and yeast
Braggot: Honey, water, yeast, hops, and malt
Acerglyn: Honey, maple syrup, water, and yeast
Capsicumel: Honey, water, yeast, and chili peppers

Types of mead associated with world regions:
Sima: Finnish mead, quickly fermented, flavored with lemons, carbonated
Tej: Ethopian mead, usually fermented with wild yeast and having gesho as an addition
Czwórniak: Polish mead with a 3:1 ratio of water to honey
Trójniak: Polish mead with a 2:1 ratio of water to honey
Dwójniak: Polish mead with a 1:1 ratio of water to honey
Półtorak: Polish mead with a 1:2 ratio of water to honey
Pitarrilla: Mayan mead using wild honey and balché tree bark
Dandaghare: Nepalese mead combining honey with Himalayan herbs and spices

That's it for now! Please comment with any questions you may have and we'll try to answer them to the best of our ability!